


New Leaf

by Wikketkrikket



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Animal Crossing - Freeform, Fluff, Fugitive Steve, Gen, Hot Tub, Implied Pepper/Tony, One Shot, Post Civil War, Steve/Tony Friendship - Freeform, canon compliant mostly, friendship fluff, the beard though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 17:37:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14313768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wikketkrikket/pseuds/Wikketkrikket
Summary: Steve made his choice. Now he is on the run from the world, separated from the Avengers, and wondering what he could have done differently. He tries to forget about it by playing Animal Crossing, but that's a tall order when Tony Stark turns up in his town.





	New Leaf

**Author's Note:**

> What do you do when you're full of cold and too sick to get out of bed? Write weird fluff, apparently. That is actually canon compliant-ish. :O (What???) Hope you all enjoy :)

Contrary to what most people seemed to expect of him, Steve Rogers was not afraid of technology. True, it was not as instinctual to him as it seemed to be to other people his (physical) age, who seemed to understand it as naturally as their own bodies, but still. He wasn't an idiot. If someone showed him how to use a Starkphone, he could do it. And once he had got the hang of Google, well, there was nothing he couldn't work out.

Sometimes he thought people didn't appreciate the technology they had enough. They didn't ever take the time to stop and think about how crazy it was that you could literally find the answer to any question, no matter how specific, in a matter of minutes on a device that fit in your pocket. You could talk in real time, face-to-face, with someone on the other side of the world through a screen smaller than your hand. You could listen to practically any song ever written right in the middle of the street. It was no wonder the world seemed to move faster, now everything was online.

Still. There was something kind of nice about going back to basics.

Not that Steve would have chosen to be on the run, but something about going from place to place, never stopping, all he possessed in the world in a gym bag at his side, sleeping in motels paid for in cash or out of sight behind a hedge, eating in roadside diners, somehow felt more real than anything else since he had woken up in this century. It was starting to feel as if Shield, the Avengers, the accords, even Bucky being back, had all been some strange dream and now he'd woken up, alone and wandering, as he had always been. Except that it still hurt to think about.

Steve ran a hand over his face, feeling the stiff bristles of what could now only fairly be called a beard. He knew it would change his face, be a good disguise, and had thrown his razor away to remove the temptation to shave it off. But hell, he hated it. If he had just agreed to sign the agreements, he wouldn't have been sitting here in a flea-bitten motel in the middle of nowhere, his whole chin itching. He could have been back at the Avengers compound, clean shaven and probably, at this time of day, in one of Tony's hot tubs.

That had been a modern luxury he hadn't been so keen to embrace, at first. It had seemed too needlessly decadent, sitting in hot, bubbling water, not to get clean but just to relax. Steve liked to be active, and he lived modestly, without excess. He'd been quite happy with his shower, honestly, and only then after he'd looked it up online and realised that everyone, not just the wealthy, had showers and a bath took more water anyway. He probably would never have gotten into a hot tub if it hadn't been for Tony, as usual.

It had been a pretty routine Avengers mission, but with Thor and Hulk away who knew where, Steve had been their only hard hitter for the hand to hand parts, and he'd taken more than his usual share of the beating. He'd been fine, but had come back to the tower stiff and bruised, intending to just stretch out somewhere and let time heal him up, except Tony had had a better idea. He'd insisted Steve should soak in the tub, and when that didn't work, he'd insisted by literally herding him in by surrounding him with robots. This was before Ultron, before Sokovia and all the trouble, and all the robots did was chase him into the wonderfully hot water. As much as Steve hadn't wanted to admit it, the tub had soothed his aches, and was generally bliss. After that, he would have lived in the hot tub if he could have done. And Tony, being Tony, had been sure to install another five in the new compound, because he had no concept of 'excess' whatsoever.

He missed Tony. He missed how things were. And although he still believed his principles had been right, he couldn't help going over and over and over it in his head. Had there been a better way to handle it? Some opportunity that he'd missed that could have stopped this whole thing? Everything had gotten so out of hand. There must have been something he could have done better.

It was no use stewing. He needed a distraction, so he rummaged in his holdall and pulled out the one piece of technology he had allowed himself to keep.

It had been a gift from Tony, of course. When Steve had been grabbing the essentials to go on the run, it had become apparent that most of what he'd owned other than the bare necessities had been from Tony. He'd felt too guilty to take them, and so he'd left behind his smartphone, his iPod, his tablet – everything but this. It was a Nintendo 3DS.

Video games were the one aspect of modern technology he hadn't really found it in himself to embrace. He didn't mind playing along in a game of Mario Party or some racing game, but he didn't really understand how Clint could come home from a hard day of being shot at and relax by looking at a screen and pretending to be shot at. Steve had tried out a few puzzle games and the like, but he was always put off by the time limits and flashing screens and blaring sounds. Far from helping him relax, they made him stress out more than ever.

Then Tony (of course), had given him the handheld console with just one game downloaded onto it: _Animal Crossing: New Leaf_.

At first Steve had only tried it to be polite, making a little character named Steve and sending him to be mayor of Brooklyn (Steve had never been very creative when it came to naming things) and had found himself pleasantly surprised. There was something soothing about the easy going nature of the game. He rarely bothered speaking to the colourful array of little animals in his town, but the game didn't really seem to care that much as long as he pulled the weeds up and ran a few errands now and then. He found a surprising amount of satisfaction in building up his museum with every fossil and bug, and spent far more time than anyone should examining the tiny digital replicas of paintings to try and see if they were genuine. He had a good crop of orange trees that had been growing in his town when he started the game, and had managed to increase the variety of what he grew from going out to the little vacation island and bringing stuff back. Even with all that though, there wasn't really a goal to the game, or at least not one that was forced on you. It was a game where he didn't have to achieve anything, he could just potter around and switch off for a while. Steve liked that, and he desperately needed to get out of his own head today. He loaded it up.

Five minutes in, as he was busy harvesting his fruit for the day, a message pinged up at the top of the screen. _A friend is visiting your town!_

Steve blinked at it. There were several reasons this shouldn't be possible. First of all, before he'd gone on the run he'd made sure the DS would no longer connect to the internet and so couldn't be traced. Secondly, he didn't have any friend codes stored in the console. Thirdly, he had never used the visiting feature before, but he was pretty sure he had to open a gate or something so it could work.

So, as far as Steve could tell, there were three possibilities. Either his console was glitching, this was some NPC that Nintendo had sent in, or Tony Stark was hacking his game. Heart pounding, he sent his character walking up to the station and quickly discovered it was the latter. It really couldn't be anyone else; the little animated caricature looked exactly like Tony, band shirt and shaded sunglasses and everything. These were items Steve was pretty sure weren't available in game, and were in such sharp definition there was no way they had been designed in the sewing shop. As usual, Tony had taken things to the limit.

A little speech bubble appeared above the Tony character's head. _Hey cap_.

Steve's hand hesitated over the DS's off switch, but then grabbed the stylus instead, laboriously picking out his message. By the time he was done, Tony had sent another four.

_Nice place you got here._

_Like the oranges._

_And no weeds._

_Guess you do a lot of gardening on the run._

Steve sent his reply. **Stark, what are you doing?**

_It's been a while. I came to play._

**I sent you a burner so you could call me if you needed me.**

_I don't need you._

_This is all pleasure, not business_.

Steve had to laugh at that. **Nothing new then :P**

_Okay, funny man. You going to show me around?_

Wishing he could trust Tony and take him at his word, Steve reached for the power button again, then changed his mind. If this wasn't a trap, or a set up, if it was an olive branch, he didn't want to go snapping it for no reason.

**Tony. Do you know where I am?**

_Irl? Nope, not a clue._

**Is that true?**

_For the purposes of this conversation, yes_

_Good enough?_

Steve bit his lip. Genuine or not, this was the first time Tony had spoken to him since the trouble. Even though he knew it was stupid, he couldn't miss this chance to see – or at least interact with – his friend.

**Come see my house.**

Steve was pretty proud of his house. He'd had it extended several times, and had carefully collected and arranged matching furniture in each of the rooms. He'd even designed some of the carpets and wallpapers himself. He thought Tony might take a little time over it, but the little character ran here and there all over the screen from room to room, his speech bubbles occasionally popping up as he tried to work out what things were and, typically for Tony, made suggestions for improvement. Finally he came to a halt.

 _This can't be your house,_ he said. _No hot tub :(_

 **No hot tubs in the game :(** Steve replied.

_I'll program you one, brb_

**Tony, no.**

_I just don't want to deny these little human-animal chimeras_

_The chance of seeing cartoon Cap in his little speedos_.

**Neither I nor cartoon Cap own little speedos.**

_Looks like I have more programming to do ;)_

Steve laughed out loud again at that. He'd missed Tony's particular brand of ridiculousness, but he could also recognise it for what it was. Tony was as nervous, as desperate to pretend that everything was normal, that everything was fine, as Steve was. But they couldn't do it forever.

 **Come see the basement** , he said, and led Tony down. He'd tried various ways to make it look like the door was hidden, but hadn't managed it. Other than that, he was pleased with how the room had turned out, from the large Avengers 'A' on the back wall, to all the scientific equipment and flashing lights he'd managed to get in. It was, as far as was possible in _Animal Crossing_ , a replica of Tony's lab from the tower.

 _Niiiiiiiiiiiice,_ Tony said. _Computer is a bit old though._ He walked passed the computer desk in the corner and went to look at the logo on the wall. _I'm surprised that's still up_.

**Of course it is.**

For a moment, neither of them said anything. Steve wasn't sure what else he could say. Any apology he could give about the accords, or Bucky, or anything, would surely sound hollow coming over the little speech bubbles. When Tony said nothing either, he gave up and changed subject.

 **I saw on the news about you and Pepper** , Steve said. **Yay \\(^O^)/**

_Yeah, it's going to be a great party :)_

_We'd send you an invite to the wedding but_

_You know_

_'Don't know where you are'..._

**Well, I'm sorry I can't make it**.

**Congratulations, Tony**

**I hope you'll be very happy together :)**

_We will._

_What about you, though?_

**I'm fine**.

_Well, if you ever feel like quitting the whole fugitive thing and coming home_

_There's a room at the compound for you_

_And like seven or eight hot tubs now_

_I have a problem_

Steve stared at the screen, wondering how he could put all he wanted to say into a single line of text. How could he tell Tony he wanted that more than anything, that he wished it was that simple, that just the offer meant the world to him even if he couldn't use it, in just a few words?

 **Thank you** , he said.

 **But I can't leave Bucky**.

 _He killed my parents_.

**I know**

**But it wasn't his fault**

For a long time, Tony's character didn't move. Steve guessed that Tony, the real Tony, had put the console down and left, but couldn't bring himself to turn off and terminate the connection just in case. A full fifteen minutes later, another message came through.

_I know_

_Doesn't mean I want to be around him, though_

**I understand.**

**I should have told you.**

_Yeah._

_Any other bombshells you want to share?_

Steve typed his message, the one he really wanted to say, sighed, and went to delete it. Unfortunately, somehow, maybe his subconscious guiding him, he managed to hit send instead. And then there was the speech bubble, spelling out the truth right over his character's head.

**I miss you** _**.** _

The reply, again, took some time to come through.

 _Let's do this again sometime_.

And with that, Tony walked out of the house. Steve didn't follow.

 

***

 

The next time Steve loaded the game, there were two letters from Tony in his mailbox. One was blank, but had with it a peach, one of the fruits he hadn't yet managed to grow in his town. The other was a short note with a piece of furniture attached.

 _Don't be a stranger_ – _TS_ , the note said, and the paper had an Iron Man helmet decorating the corner.

Steve inspected the furniture. It was, of course, a hot tub. It was so big he had to take all the furniture out of one of his smaller rooms just to fit it in, and when he rotated it he saw the side was decorated with a large Avengers 'A'.

 


End file.
